I share this to provide a relatable view of what’s happening to the people and institutions that make our government function. The government that manages and protects the environments that we live in and depend on. This is wrong.

I was also extremely passionate and proud to be a public servant working for USGS – a respected science agency that provides trusted, unbiased information without advocating for policy.

Personally, I made a lot of sacrifices to serve our country. I worked hard to develop useful skills for state & fed agencies. I left all my family & friends in Colorado to move to Nevada, a state I didn't know a soul in. I uprooted my life for a job that I thought had great stability & opportunity.

What classes did I teach? I taught statistics and decision analysis to graduate student at University of Nevada. Coursework that taught folks how to make strong inferences from data, and how to use that information to make good decisions to improve outcomes and save money. I.e., program efficiency.

I also helped make sure animals that people love, like tortoises and mule deer, don’t go extinct for the sake of ‘energy dominance’ that will destroy the world.

E.g.,, the horse population modeling tool I built, PopEquus, helps reduce spending on wild horse population management to the tune of millions of dollars per year & is used by Bureau of Land Management staff across the American West. That product is a template for increasing government efficiency.

What research did I do? I worked with natural resource agencies and helped them improve population conditions for animals like endangered species, game species, and wild horses. Goals of this research include decreasing regulatory burden and government spending, among other things.

My release occurred alongside hundreds of other fine USGS scientists & ~330,000 employees across other fed agencies across the country. I am not a lawyer, but these firings seem unthoughtful, inefficient, & illegal. Nobody ever looked at my performance record & whether my contributions were useful.

Last Friday, I was terminated from my position “for no reason at all”, according to my regional supervisor. Just following chain of command. A few days later, I received a generic form email indicating that my “knowledge, skills, and abilities are no longer needed by the Department [of Interior]”.

I was stationed at University of Nevada, where I studied wildlife, taught classes, & helped grow students grow into their careers. In 3+ years of federal service, all of my performance reviews were positive and the agencies I helped found value in my work. I have support letters.

What does this mean? I provided science to support decisions about managing and conserving the animals and landscapes we love, the wildlife we hunt, and the water we drink.

Ditto. Nothing wrong with a polite inquiry to an editor - and it may speed things up/prevent further delays!

Pretty pretty! And a big one, too.

Interesting approach: very clear and structured, which I suspect will make this useful.